Thursday is old school/new school day.
Old school: Everyone wants health and wealth!
New School: Do you know anyone who…
How often have you heard “Everyone wants health and wealth!” from the front of the room? You know, to encourage you to contact everyone you know or meet to pitch them your business opportunity?
And how many of you discovered first hand that everyone didn’t want health and wealth after all, if it meant doing your business?
How about a new approach to save some stress and anxiety?
Make no promises or proclamations. There is no guarantee anyone will make money or get healthy joining you.
The more promises you make, the more do-nothings will appear at your door.
How about this: Describe with care the person you seek, so they can hear your call. Good people don’t repond to cattle calls. Use the singular.
E.g. someone who is looking for a change, and who…
…is ready, willing and able to do something about it for the next 3-5 years…OR
…who has experience in marketing, public speaking, has owned business before…OR
…who has always had an entrepreneurial streak…OR
…loves telling the world about something they are crazy about…
etc…
Scary thing: The more you describe the person you seek, the fewer will respond.
Think of prospecting this way:
Nordstrom may have 5,000 pairs of shoes in a store, but only 3 pair that are white, women’s size 8, Nike tennis shoes, the kind you asked for.
Aren’t those the three pairs you want the salesperson to bring out? Or would you rather grope through all 5,000 pairs in the store?
You get the idea…
Some years ago, our compnay launched a promotion with the prize of a week-long holiday in the Bahamas. This really excited me (so much so that I did in fact qualify for it).
And I mentioned it in all my presentations, with great enthusiasm.
Until I was in conversation with one lady, who had up to that point seemed very interested, and who suddenly pulled back as I started to talk about the pleasure of a whole week in a wonderful place.
“Oh, that would never suit me! I could never leave my children for a whole week! What a dreadful idea!”
I completely lost her attention, and the main thing she took from the meeting was that she might have to leave her chidren for a week!
Lesson learnt – and remembered after all these years.
There is very little that “everyone wants”!
Hi Kim…I like your post very much because it’s a reminder of what you’ve been teaching us for a while now:
Our Mission is to find those for whom this is the right thing to be doing, right now — no one else.
This applies to finding a new customer for our products, or finding a new distributor that wants to build a home-based business. I appreciate that you always endeavor to teach us ‘how to ask’ for the ‘right’ person!
Thanks for being the leader that you are, and for blazing a trail for us new-schoolers!
Karen
Oh, boy… that reminds me of a very painful, but well-learned, lesson from my first few weeks in network marketing, more than 20 years ago.
There I was, an hour’s drive from home, showing the plan to a lady for one of my new downline team members (who couldn’t make it during business hours).
I dazzled her with the retirement income aspects (which had really caught my own imagination when I heard it) and, with a dramatic finish, waited expectantly for her to leap to her feet and sign up on the spot.
Instead, she looked bewildered and, in a plaintive whiser, said:
“But I only wanted to earn a few dollars a month to pay for my car insurance…”
*doh!*
Surprise, surprise… she didn’t join.
Thanks for the reminder!
John Counsel
http://www.AllAboutMLM.com
My National Sales Director in Mary Kay was coming to my area, I was so excited because she is a woman who earns bewtween $40,000-$50,000 a month and I just knew that she would dazzle my prospects. I invited a teacher friend to hear her speak and spoke glowingly of my NSD’s accomplishemnts and her her income…… long pause. Finally my friend said ” All I want to do is make a couple hundred extra dollars a month. What are YOU making? Lesson learned!